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Desert Storm began 24 years ago on the evening of January 16 (US)/ the early morning January 17 (Middle East), where were you at?
January 16, 1991 began as a normal day, the operation in the Middle East was still called "Desert Shield", but turned out to be very hectic at the end of the day.
I was stationed with the 10th Mountain Division up at Ft. Drum, NY. Any military history buff knows that, save for one support battalion, no other units left for Saudi Arabia. There were, however, "onesies and twosies" picked from different units to fill the gaps of the of the units already over there.
As an Avionics Radar Repairer (35R), I didn't even think that I would go over there, until my squad leader called me during lunchtime. I was at the CQ desk, when he called asking for three 35R volunteers to deploy with a Reserve unit to the Middle East. Without hesitation, I told my squad leader that I would be the first volunteer. The other two "Romeos" volunteered later on.
After lunch, it was a mad dash to get the three of us through the whole deployment readiness process. This was completed later in the afternoon.
I was calling up different family members, letting them know that I'll be leaving for Ft. Rucker and, a few weeks later, to Saudi Arabia. I remember that I had the TV on in my barracks room, watching ABC News with Peter Jennings, and being on the phone with my oldest brother. I was probably about five minutes into our conversation when breaking news came on from Baghdad- Operation Desert Storm had begun.
I was a bit shocked, but after I got over the initial shock, I knew that I had a job to do- serving my country.
So where were you when Desert Storm began? I'd like to hear your stories.
January 16, 1991 began as a normal day, the operation in the Middle East was still called "Desert Shield", but turned out to be very hectic at the end of the day.
I was stationed with the 10th Mountain Division up at Ft. Drum, NY. Any military history buff knows that, save for one support battalion, no other units left for Saudi Arabia. There were, however, "onesies and twosies" picked from different units to fill the gaps of the of the units already over there.
As an Avionics Radar Repairer (35R), I didn't even think that I would go over there, until my squad leader called me during lunchtime. I was at the CQ desk, when he called asking for three 35R volunteers to deploy with a Reserve unit to the Middle East. Without hesitation, I told my squad leader that I would be the first volunteer. The other two "Romeos" volunteered later on.
After lunch, it was a mad dash to get the three of us through the whole deployment readiness process. This was completed later in the afternoon.
I was calling up different family members, letting them know that I'll be leaving for Ft. Rucker and, a few weeks later, to Saudi Arabia. I remember that I had the TV on in my barracks room, watching ABC News with Peter Jennings, and being on the phone with my oldest brother. I was probably about five minutes into our conversation when breaking news came on from Baghdad- Operation Desert Storm had begun.
I was a bit shocked, but after I got over the initial shock, I knew that I had a job to do- serving my country.
So where were you when Desert Storm began? I'd like to hear your stories.
Posted in these groups: 
Operation Desert Shield/Storm
Operation Desert Shield/Storm
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 371
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Khobar towers waiting for tanks to arrive from Germany. Probably sitting in our gas masks while acid were being launched.
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CSM Michael J. Uhlig
I hadn't heard or thought about Khobar towers (or the white elephant) in years!
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I was thinking about this as we approach the anniversary of that war. I was at Ramstein AB, Germany working as the Squadron Operations Officer for the Aerial Port. We got very busy, very quickly and we had an entire reserve squadron deploy in to help us.
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Well, let's see I was on USS Yellowstone(AD 41) under cover of the 3 Red Sea carriers when the first planes and Tomahawks were sent in. Capt Pratt(a great man and leader) came over the 1MC there about Midnight announcing the commencement of operations. Stayed under that cover for another week until we were allowed along with the first 4 small boys being repaired back to Jeddah, SA. There we would take on 150 vital work procedures and in 4 days go from planning stage to completion. At that point 4 more ships would come at us and we'd do the same thing until relieved by USS Puget Sound(AD 38) on Feb. 28 so we could be home on March 23 as one of the first ships to return to the east coast. And we carried home a shot up aircraft that had to be tied down to a corner of the flight deck.
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PO3 (Join to see)
I'm thinking that bird came from the Saratoga.
She went through a lot during that deployment. Lost a bunch of guys when a liberty boat capsized. Had two birds shot down. Even had a scud launched at them. I could be wrong about this particular bird though.
She went through a lot during that deployment. Lost a bunch of guys when a liberty boat capsized. Had two birds shot down. Even had a scud launched at them. I could be wrong about this particular bird though.
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PO1 Michael Phipps
Can't recall where that plane came from. Just recall having to give ground when running on the main deck on the way home.
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PO1 Michael Phipps
Sgt. John, the picture was captured by a shipmate. May have been in our cruisebook. Just know it was recently posted while the ship was being towed from Norfolk, VA to ESCO Marine in Brownsville, TX to be dismantled for scrap.
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SSgt Jill E.
If you want to march in the 2016 National Memorial Day Parade in Washington DC, please get in touch. This is for Desert Storm Veterans who were deployed (in theater) during DS. http://www.desertstormreunion.com/#!2016-memorial-day-parade-in-washington/chq2
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I was sitting at the HQ's 7th Corps Support Group as the Group S1/Adjutant in Log Base Echo waiting our units to push through the breach with the 7th Corps, 1st AD and 3rd AD trying to figure out if we had enough people to provide Fuel, Water, Food, Repair Parts and god forbid Graves Registration if needed. In Germany we had 3 Maintenance Battalions and a Supply and Services Battalion and Transportation Battalion assigned to the Corps. So all our transportation assets were Guard and Reserve units. I was still receiving units being assigned to us up to 12 hours before the ground war started. So I had over 4000 people spread over SWA Asia, Europe and USA before it was all over.
The one thing that I remember was we were just starting to use email and every morning two Air Force Captains who were Liaison Offciers to 7th Corps put out a unclassified newsletter on the previous days events during the air war and it was so funny it made it bearable to get up in the morning! To who ever those two Air Force Captains were thank you so much for bring a little humor to us ground pounders!
The one thing that I remember was we were just starting to use email and every morning two Air Force Captains who were Liaison Offciers to 7th Corps put out a unclassified newsletter on the previous days events during the air war and it was so funny it made it bearable to get up in the morning! To who ever those two Air Force Captains were thank you so much for bring a little humor to us ground pounders!
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Well, on January 16, 1991, I was living in a tent somewhere in Saudi Arabia south of the Iraqi border. We got up every morning for Stand-To on the perimeter, then we would do some rifle PT, followed by a breakfast of green eggs and some sausages we called "camel dicks". After that, we would either burn sh*t or practice movement and battle drills our in the desert. Also, we played a lot of Spades and Hacky Sack. I even learned how to play Euchre with some of the Yankees in my unit. I was in the Mortar Platoon of HHC 4/7 Infantry, 3ID, out of Aschaffenburg Germany and we were attached to 1AD during the ground war.
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I had a Special Forces team in northern Norway. We arrived back at Pope AFB in our over-whites, carrying skis surprised to be greeted by a bunch of folks congratulating us on our return from Desert Storm. We got quite a laugh out of that.
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SGT (Join to see)
MG Hugh Van Roosen, I could only imagine what kind of questions they were asking you, Sir, LOL!
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I was 3 1\2 years old and I was watching a news station that was reporting on the war and I remember the night vision green and black images of Iraq getting bombed. We were stationed at fort hood at the time. They were going to deploy my father but then the war ended abruptly so luckily that didn't happen.
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Saudi Arabia headed toward the Neutral Zone. Glad to be away from the port where every time a dignitary came through or a CONNEX was dropped we were in MOPP gear up against the wall of a building.
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